The 73rd Berlinale (February 16th to 26th) has started. Berlin’s preeminent cinema event is the first major European film showcase of the year, with over 200 films premiering over the next ten days. If you’re the sort of person who likes to stay in the know about these things, you’ve likely heard of Margarethe von Trotta’s much-buzzed-about biopic on Ingeborg Bachmann, the Jessie Eisenberg-led Manodrome from John Trengrove, Silver Bear winner Christian Petzold’s new film Afire, and Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything, from German-French-Iranian director Emily Atef. At the Berlinale, though, the variety and richness of the offerings have always been its main draw for film lovers, and the most exquisite moments are often unexpected ones. To help you stay ahead of the curve, SLEEK has put together a selection of ten hidden gems, films that aren’t part of the main competition that nevertheless promise to glitter in new and unexpected ways.
Image Courtesy of Miyu Productions.
Aaaah ! (Osman Cerfon, 2022)
Osman Cerfon‘s tumultuous animated short takes place over the course of a day at school, throughout which cries of “Aaaah!” ring out. The french filmmaker’s characteristically gloomy-doomy eye is here turned towards the world of children, with all of its anger, boredom, joy, and surprise. In a world so full of chaos created by adults, this film playfully juxtaposes attempts at imposing order on the uproar of childhood. As part of the festival’s Generation KPlus, it’s something that younger audiences can enjoy as well.
Image Courtesy of Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF / Gautam Bora / Tony Loeser / 1983.
Ein Herbst im Ländchen Bärwalde (Gautam Bora, 1983)
Part of the Berlinale Special Forum, this short documentary by Indian director Gautam Bora was filmed while he was an international student at the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen in Babelsberg, just outside of Berlin. The film, whose title translates to “An Autumn in the Little Land of Barwalde”, offers a window into the everyday lives of a family of farmers living in East Germany, near where Bora was studying. The work has been praised for its attentive but unsparing portrayal of life in rural Germany. Bora’s “outsider” perspective adds a further layer of depth to his portrait.
Image Courtesy of Mary Helene Clark.
Exhibition (Mary Helena Clark, 2022)
An entry from the Expanded Forum, Mary Helena Clark’s experimental short revolves around the stories of two women and their relationships with objects. In one, a Swedish woman marries the Berlin wall; in the other a suffragette takes a hatchet to the Velásquez painting The Toilet of Venus. Clark’s work frequently draws comparisons to poetry; here she applies her exquisite vocabulary to the questions of subjectivity and human attachment.
Image Courtesy of Moyra Davey.
Horse Opera (Moyra Davey, 2022)
Moyra Davey’s most recent long form work has been described as “a celebration of New York City life and community”. The film’s colorful span flits across dance parties, lectures, and portraits of animals at the artist’s country house, with a soundtrack from Lauren Hill to Prince and overlaid with narration from Davey herself. This one promises to have plenty of pearls for the techno-lovers out there, but it isn’t just another club film; the long nights of dance are a foreground for questions about the relationship between the body and time. There’s also apparently some horse urine involved.
Image Courtesy of Renata Baracho.
Infantry (Laís Santos Araújo, 2022)
A vibrant magical-realist short staged within a birthday party in Brazil’s conservative northeast. Araújo is one of Brazil’s most promising young directors; Infantry won the Grand Prix at the Rio de Janero International Short Film Festival, and she’s now at work on her first feature film. Here’s your chance to be able to say “oh, I’ve seen one of her early pieces” whenever the big one eventually drops. With a lush visual palate of beads, dolls, toy guns, lillypads, necklaces, and half-eaten fruit, it’s also just really fun to look at.
Image Courtesy of Heretic.
Inside (Vasilis Katsoupis, 2023)
This is the point in the article where someone might put their hand up and complain that this isn’t much of a hidden gem at all – although Inside isn’t part of the official competition, this William Dafoe-led feature is one of the most buzzed-about releases of the Berlinale. And to all those hand-raisers, we have to say, fair enough, but we’re putting it on here anyway because it just looks so good. Dafoe plays an art thief whose heist goes sour when he ends up trapped in a penthouse in New York, surrounded by priceless works of art. Promises to invite all sorts of opportunities for musing, presumably while watching Dafoe go berserk on some Rothokos and De Koonings.
Image Courtesy of Phalanstery Films, Radar Films, 2023.
It’s a Date (Nadia Parfan, 2022)
The big “Ukraine film” of the Berlinale is Sean Penn’s Superpower, a character study of the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky at the outset of the Russian invasion, but Nadia Parfan’s single-shot narrative short of a car racing through Kyiv at dawn promises to provide its own sort of intimate contact with the nation at war. Single shot films are perpetually compelling because they pull you into a different sort of performance than that of a traditional film – durational, live, always at risk of teetering off the edge. Here Parfan uses the technique to communicate the sense of emergency inculcated by the war.
Image Courtesy of MADE IN GERMANY.
Lonely Oaks (Fabiana Fragale, Kilian Kuhlendahl, Jens Mühlhoff, 2022)
A documentary film centered around the death of climate activist Steffen Meyn, who fell to his death during 2018 protests in Hambach Forest (Western Germany). The film integrates interviews with environmental activists with headcam footage shot by Meyn to raise questions about the extent to which activism should go and the potential consequences of fighting for what you believe in. These interrogations have only become more relevant in the years after Meyn’s death, as activists have become increasingly willing to put their bodies on the line to fight climate change.
Image Courtesy of Tangy.
Opponent (Milad Alami, 2023)
Opponent tells the story of Iman, an Iranian who is forced to flee to Sweden with his family. In an attempt to improve their chances of finding permanent housing, he returns to wrestling, a profession he had hoped to leave behind. Alami’s second feature film offers a sensitive and gripping look at the migrant experience in contemporary Europe. Importantly, Alami doesn’t fall back on political currents to create a compelling work – this is a movie designed to be enjoyed in its own right.
Image Courtesy of Yugantar.
Yugantar Film Collective (Yugantar film archives)
The Yugantar Film Collective has been a significant force in Indian cinema since the 1960s. This exhibition at SAVVY Contemporary is a rare opportunity to see archival work from India’s first feminist collective, which is marked by a socially engaged approach that centers on the struggles of the working class and other marginalized communities. Their films offer a window into a moment of transformation in India’s cultural and political landscape, and remain relevant today as an inspiration for alternative modes of film production and distribution.